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A New Day, a New Vant. Roivant Launches Alyvant Ahead of J.P. Morgan 2019

Published: Jan 07, 2019
By Alex Keown

Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has launched another subsidiary for Roivant Sciences. Just ahead of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference the company announced the launch of Alyvant, a new company focused on tech-enabled pharma commercialization.

Alyvant comes out of the gate with an announced partnership for the co-promotion of three approved branded medicines. However, the details of that partnership were not provided during the announcement. Ramaswamy, the chief executive officer of Roivant, will be making a presentation later today and it is likely that additional details of Alyvant’s partnership and commercialization platform will be further explained. In its announcement, Roivant noted that the long-range vision for Alyvant “is to reduce the cost of commercializing all medicines through technology, generating savings for the healthcare system at large.”

Benjamin Zimmer, president of Basel, Switzerland-based Roivant, noted that Alyvant’s technology will integrate market research, sales force optimization, and digital engagement into a single platform. That platform will be able to connect patients and physicians with “relevant medicines as cost-effectively as possible,” Zimmer said.

“This technology platform allows us to engage new market segments that are underserved by traditional pharma commercial models, while also reducing the need for expensive and wasteful mass-market DTC campaigns that inflate the cost of delivering new medicines to patients,” Zimmer said in a statement provided to BioSpace.

Alyvant could work closely with another Roivant subsidiary, Datavant, which is focused on organizing healthcare data for use in clinical trials and drug applications, as well as healthcare analytics.

Alyvant will be helmed by longtime veteran Gillian Cannon, who will serve in the role of president. Cannon has more than 30 years of experience with companies like Merck, Otsuka and UCB. Additionally, Mitchell Mittman will serve as Alyvant’s chief technology officer. Mittman has held senior leadership roles in companies such as Amazon, Expedia and Goldman Sachs. While at those companies, Mittman developed software and data science platforms.

In addition to the launch of Alyvant, Ramaswamy is expected to provide updates on several of his other Vants, subsidiaries described as being “nimble, entrepreneurial biotech and healthcare technology companies.” Among the updates, Ramaswamy will provide is information on the rolling Biologics Licensing Application submission for RVT-802 that was initiated inJuly. The BLA was expected to be completed by the end of the year. RVT-802 is a tissue-based regenerative therapy developed by Enzyvant, another subsidiary that has a focus on rare diseases. RVT-802 is being developed for the primary immune deficiency caused by congenital athymia associated with complete DiGeorge Anomaly (cDGA), a fatal disease.

Ramaswamy will also provide preliminary clinical data for anti-FcRn antibody RVT-1401. That compound was the foundation medication behind the launch of another Vant in July, Immunovant. RVT-1401 is a fully human monoclonal antibody targeting the neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn). Blockade of FcRn-Immunoglobulin G (IgG) interactions has been shown to lead to the rapid depletion of IgG. RVT-1401 has potential as a treatment for IgG-mediated autoimmune diseases.

The company will also provide details on multiple Phase II and Phase III trials, as well as some other corporate information, such as the creation of a Scientific Advisory Board for Axovant, a gene therapy company, that only weeks ago licensed gene therapy programs to address two diseases, Tay-Sachs (GM1 gangliosidosis) and Sandhoff diseases (GM2 gangliosidosis).